Designing for seniors: what Eldelia taught us

When we started working on Eldelia — an AI companion app for seniors — we thought we knew what accessible design meant. Bigger text, higher contrast, larger touch targets. Run the WCAG checklist, ship it.

Then we watched real users interact with our first prototype, and most of our assumptions fell apart in the first ten minutes.

Confidence is the real accessibility feature

The biggest barrier wasn't vision or dexterity — it was fear of breaking something. Users hovered over buttons, asking 'is it safe to press this?' Every destructive action without a clear undo eroded their willingness to explore.

So we redesigned around reversibility. Every action can be undone. Every screen says where you are and how to get back. Error messages became reassurances: 'Nothing is lost, let's try that again.'

What we carry forward

Designing for seniors made us better designers for everyone. Clear navigation, forgiving interactions, and plain language aren't 'senior features' — they're just good design that most products skip because their users tolerate the friction.

Now every project at frame387 gets the Eldelia question: would someone's grandmother feel confident using this? If not, we're not done.